


untitled

by littlearrows



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, blood cw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 21:12:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3543920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlearrows/pseuds/littlearrows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The heat gets turned off in their flat again, and they have to hide in Harry’s dorm for three days before they finally sell off Niall’s grandfather’s watch and the last of Zayn’s art supplies to pay their bill. It’s warm when they get home, but they get out Niall’s grandmother’s big blankets anyway and cocoon themselves in bed together."</p>
            </blockquote>





	untitled

“Radius,” Zayn whispers before pressing a kiss into Niall’s forearm. He drags his lips along Niall’s skin as he moves up his arm, murmuring, "humerus,” before he bites at Niall’s bicep. He sucks a bruise around his bite and continues dragging his lips across Niall’s skin. He whispers about the clavicle when he gets there before jumping up to the base of Niall’s jaw to kiss and lick Niall’s salty skin. “Mandible,” he sighs after his last lick before dragging his lips across Niall’s.

“Teeth?” Niall whispers against Zayn’s chapped lips.

“Not bones,” Zayn says. He grips Niall’s hair tightly for a second before letting go and putting his head back on his own pillow. Sometimes after they have sex, Zayn will go over every inch of Niall’s skin, twisting and turning Niall over in their tangled sheet to tell him where every bone is, but tonight they’re too tired. Niall turns the lamp on the floor next to bed off before resting his head against Zayn’s chest and closing his eyes.

____

They met on the underground. Niall had been a busboy and was getting off the graveyard shift, while Zayn had been riding the trains for the last two hours to sketch kissing couples and uni students going home after an all-nighter and commuters beginning their days. Niall saw Zayn peeking out from behind his sketch pad, watched as Zayn grabbed yellow pastels for Niall’s hair and blue watercolours for his eyes. When Zayn put down his notebook, Niall leaned across the aisle and asked, “Can I have that drawing?” Zayn shook his head, and Niall decided that if he couldn’t have the art, he at least wanted the artist.

____

Harry brings them food that he steals from his uni because he knows they can’t afford it on their own. He was Niall’s friend first, but Zayn instantly liked him, with his gold shiny tights and oversized sweaters and hair pulled high in a bun on top of his head. Harry makes Zayn itch for his note pad, for his charcoal pencils that had long since been sold for extra money. Niall always thanks Harry profusely for bringing them food, but Zayn suspects that he’d be less thankful if he knew that Harry is also Zayn’s supplier of cigarettes.

____

There are only two things sacred to Zayn and he houses both of them in the flat. Niall is the first, who Zayn would very much like to keep hidden away from the harsh London winters and rainy summer days. He wants to bring Niall tea and biscuits in bed and get a kitten for Niall to curl up with when Zayn has to be at work. Wants for Niall to spend his days writing, like he intended to when he came to London as a fresh-faced eighteen year old. Wants to be able to spread Niall out on their bedroom floor and paint every inch of him with the word _mine_ over and over like a mantra. But Zayn can’t have any of those things for his forever boy.

The second sacred thing is a book of anatomy. It belonged to Zayn’s uncle, but Zayn stole it from his uncle’s study when he was a little boy. He’s read it cover to cover a hundred times, can tell Niall every word of it. He housed dreams of becoming a doctor when he was young, would make his mother and father pretend to be hurt so he could fix up their broken heads and sore tummies. Those dreams fell apart too quickly though, when Zayn was sixteen and everything was falling apart and there was no money, never any money. He ran away to London and brought only his anatomy book and art supplies in a tearing knapsack with him.

____

Zayn loves Niall like this—naked and held down beneath Zayn’s hands on his biceps and kissing Zayn so hard he’s sure his lips will bruise. “Please,” Niall begs, because he knows Zayn likes it. “Please,” he says again and Zayn can’t do anything but give Niall what he’s asking for.

____

After, Niall is too blissed out to do much of anything other than lay there and let Zayn trace the bruises he sucked into Niall’s thigh, collarbone, jaw with the tip of his finger as Zayn explains why bruises form.

“Contusion,” Zayn said, so quietly and gently that Niall has to strain to hear him. “Sometimes they’re called contusions. The blood vessels break, Niall, they break and the blood that leaks out of the broken vessels make the bruise.”

“I love you, I love you, I love you,” Niall says over and over at the same time, equally quiet and gentle. He’s carding his fingers through Zayn’s messy hair.

Zayn takes Niall’s other arm and puts his mouth against Niall’s blue veins at the heel of his hand. “They’re blue because of how close the vein is to the skin and how much light can penetrate. The blue light can’t get in as deeply as red light so it makes the veins look blue, Niall. Some people think it’s because of the lack of oxygen, but that’s not right,” Zayn says, his lips still pressed again Niall’s skin.

“I love you, I love you, I love you,” Niall keeps repeating, still running his fingers through Zayn’s hair.

____

Niall worked handing out flyers for different tour groups after he was a busboy. Then, he worked in a record shop, then as a lifeguard. Now he works in construction. He used to hate it, but a dog started showing up to his work site, and began following Niall around after Niall once gave him a bit of his lunch. During his breaks, he’ll play fetch with the stray, or take him for a walk around the park. He wants to keep him but he knows that he can’t.

____

The heat gets turned off in their flat again, and they have to hide in Harry’s dorm for three days before they finally sell off Niall’s grandfather’s watch and the last of Zayn’s art supplies to pay their bill. It’s warm when they get home, but they get out Niall’s grandmother’s big blankets anyway and cocoon themselves in bed together.

____

Niall comes stumbling into the flat at noon. Zayn already knows that something’s wrong, Niall isn’t due home for hours, but when he comes out from the bedroom, Niall is trying to soak up the blood on his face. It starts from his forehead and the blood is getting into Niall’s eyes. Niall swears, and Zayn follows suit.

He calls Harry and makes him Google how to give stitches. Harry keeps asking Zayn _why why_ but Zayn screams at him and Harry just reads out the instructions he finds. Niall is trying to wipe off the blood dripping from his face. Zayn hangs up on Harry quickly after he’s finished giving instruction. He’ll call back later and thank him, but now he wets a paper towel and takes Niall’s hands away from his face. Zayn mops up the blood on Niall’s face, dripping from his chin. Niall tells him there was an accident at work, and Zayn kisses Niall’s bloody lips to quiet him. He moves up to Niall’s forehead and kisses the stitches softly. Niall sighs happily.

Zayn makes a big pot of ramen for the two of them tonight. There’s blood on his fingers, but he doesn’t mind.


End file.
